Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Also Indicted In Procurement Case

Social democrat senator Mihail Popescu, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also indicted in the case the prosecutors opened against current Chairman, Gen Eugen Badalan.

Razvan Belciuganu, Alexandra Chivu Social democrat senator Mihail Popescu, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also indicted in the case the prosecutors opened against current Chairman, Gen Eugen Badalan.

The anti-corruption prosecutors charged the two generals for having sealed with Tofan Group a contract exchanging 4,000 army vehicles for 6,000 tires. The contract was signed in June 2000, when Popescu was in office. He drafted the report which advised for striking the deal with Tofan Group, and the minister of defense Sorin Frunzaverde, a member of the Democrat Party, now again a member of the ruling coalition, signed it.

The Defense Ministry own division for audit issued a report stating that Frunzaverde "was mislead into believing that Tofan was the only distributor of tires in Romania and that indeed 4,000 vehicles would be exchanged for 6,000 tires."

The audit division presented its report to the anti-corruption division, itemizing all the clauses of the contract which put the Defense Ministry at disadvantage.

In spite of this report, the contract went ahead both during Popescu’s and Badalan’s leadership of the Romanian military.

The anticorruption prosecutors started their own investigation and asked current defense minister, National Liberal Party member, Teodor Atanasiu, to present the conclusions of an internal investigation conducted by the newly founded fraud prevention division in the ministry.

The internal administrative investigation produced a 91-page long report, appended by 1,300 others.

Col Constantin Tene, heading the internal investigation unit, told Jurnalul National daily that the Tofan contract was sealed and conducted with evident breach to the procurement laws and other several laws.

Popescu said he signed the deal between Tofan and the Defense Ministry but denied any wrongdoing, and said that people he denied promotion held a grudge against him and are now taking revenge on him.

Popescu said that "when the contract was signed Mr. Atanasiu was making money in the private sector, while the military did not have funds to pay the utilities."

"The Defense Ministry had to pay Tofan for the tires it needed for the deployment in Bosnia and for the troops training in Romania, but it had no money. This is why a pay in kind was decided: used army vehicles for new Tofan tires."

Gelu Tofan, manager of the Tofan Group, said to him the whole scandal looked like being prompted by a political dispute between the Democrat and the National Liberal parties, partnering in the ruling coalition.

Navy Chief of Staff VAdm Gheorghe Marin is said to take over their position Badalan holds

"After having the liberal defense minister Atanasiu indicted on a complaint from president Traian Basescu media adviser Adriana Saftoiu, the liberals show now that they can pull something similar against the democrat Frunzaverde, formerly heading the ministry," Tofan said.

Military sources told Mediafax wire service that Atanasiu would nominate Navy Chief of Staff VAdm Gheorghe Marin to replace Badalan, who would have to step down as a result of his being investigated.

Saturday Atanasiu confirmed he was about to make the nomination very soon.

Translated by Anca Paduraru